Customer service in T&T sucks, but CS advisor Keston Cotton wants to help change that

“Customer Service in Trinidad and Tobago is the worst!”
We’ve all heard the statement and at some point in time we have all experienced it and said it ourselves.

However, Keston Cotton, a former insurance sales agent and Customer Service Advisor/Consultant and currently co-founder and owner of the company Organise With Style, believes he has the solution to this problem and has written a book providing the advice that CSR’s across the island are in need of.

Through his business, he provides professional services that help in enhancing organizations in Trinidad and Tobago. They provide services in the field of customer service, administration and organizing.

His book is called “Simple Steps to Excellent Customer Service – The ABC’s Every CSR Should Remember.” It is an alphabetical guide to all the issues and solutions to being a better customer service representative.

This is his second book, having published an earlier CS inspired one entitled “My Customer Service stories”

Speaking to izzso, Cotton said one of the major issues he encountered in TT with customer service, is persons who don’t understand that concept of “It’s not what you say, but how.”

He said “Most times, when we the customer complain about poor customer service, the representative, I am almost certain, has no idea what they would have done or said wrong and it is simply because of the fact that they just don’t understand, it’s not what you say , but how. To them, they would have said everything that their boss told them they had to say, not realising the tone it would have come across in.”

Cotton added “another issue for me, is that most times the CSR lacks patience. They fail to realise that when a customer comes to our establishment, they are looking towards the CSR as the expert there to help and I spoke about that in the book under the letter P for Patience. So we lack that patience, especially when sometimes a customer finds it a little difficult to tell you what they want. And, we somehow have that feeling that ‘this is going on too long’ and it shows in our attitude and in our response. It is something we need to be mindful of that we are here to assist and we have to exercise that patience and also have the right attitude when we are dealing with the customer, because customer service is not just a job or a department, it is indeed an attitude.”

Not wanting to give away too much about the book, as he wants people to purchase and read the information detailed, we asked Mr Cotton, when his love for customer service began.